Black & Gold Bullets: November 27

It is an exciting time to be a Crew fan, as Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter continues to shape his team for 2014. More moves came Tuesday, when the team bolstered its defense with the re-signing of Josh Williams and the signings of Costa Rican Waylon Francis and Homegrown Player Matt Wiet. Read the reports by Adam Jardy from the Columbus Dispatch and Andrew King from MLSsoccer.com, and be sure to check out the career highlights of Francis and Williams on TheCrew.com.

Monday was also a newsworthy day in the offseason. Major League Soccer released the 2014 season schedule, and dates to circle for Crew fans include the March 8 season-opener at D.C., the home-opener two weeks later against Philadelphia and the August 16 match-up between new Crew boss Gregg Berhalter and his former coach and mentor Bruce Arena when the L.A. Galaxy comes to Columbus. For further analysis of the 2014 schedule, turn to TheCrew.com's Cody Sharrett and Adam Jardy from the Columbus Dispatch.

Crew Stadium continues to be one of the United States' premier soccer venues, and one of the main reasons for that is the playing surface. No matter what the unpredictable weather throws at it, Director of Stadium Grounds Weston Appelfeller and his staff have the pitch in pristine condition for every match. On Tuesday, it was announced that these efforts earned the club the honor of 2013 Field of the Year in the professional category, as named by the Sports Turf Managers Assocation. The club also won the PROMAXBDA Sports Media Marketing Award for Best Spot for the television commercial titled "Family."